A different, and very good, approach to the disaster movie with a great cast.

Poseidon-3

Released at the height of the disaster movie craze of the 1970's, this is more a suspense film than an all-star catastrophe epic. Sharif plays the stoic captain of an outdated cruise liner who is informed of seven bombs placed throughout the lower levels of the ship, which will explode in 24 hours unless a ransom is paid. While the police, the British government, the British navy and the management of the line scramble in London to find a solution and locate the extortionist, Harris (a demolitions expert) and his team are parachuted in to try to disarm the explosive devices. Meanwhile, seasick passengers battle fear and ennui as activities director Kinnear struggles to keep the mood cheerful. A truly staggering cast, made up of mostly British character actors, delivers interesting performances under the surprisingly taut and trim direction of Lester (who also infuses the film with his customary brand of subversive humor and perverse sense of the absurd.) Sharif has very little of note to do in his role other than act as a masthead and allow others to bounce off of him, but he looks nice in his Captain's gear. Harris has a very nice part and plays it well. Hemmings, as Harris' sidekick develops a likable persona. Hopkins effectively plays a police detective who has the added pressure of knowing his wife Mortimer and their two children are on board the threatened vessel! Holm is excellent as the harried manager of the cruise line. Knight has a dour, thankless role as a bored, restless, married passenger, but manages to inject some wryness into her line delivery. James scores a few points as a cut-the-bull passenger and Jones is a memorable blackmailing suspect. Cusack and Hordern appear without billing in small, but effective, roles. Visible briefly on deck is MacCorkindale as a helmsman. Lester placed the cast and extras upon a real life, down-on-its-luck cruise ship and sought out the worst possible weather, giving the film a sense of dreary verisimilitude that works in its favor. This is no slick Hollywood (or Irwin Allen-esquire) product but a cold, sometimes tense film with only some scattered humor to break the stress. Several sequences provide proper action and suspense, though the committed cast keeps everything pretty well grounded. Lester, who made quite a few comedic films is actually quite at home here, though the original author was unhappy enough with some of the changes Lester made to the script to have his name changed to an alias. He doesn't go for the sentimental (for example, there are no scenes of Hopkins and Mortimer crying on the phone together) nor does he dwell on the disaster elements. An explosion rocking a ballroom and setting off a sprinkler system is barely shown at all! He focuses instead on the mystery elements of the bomber and on the quest to disarm the bombs before the ship is destroyed. It's an unusual but mostly captivating piece of movie-making.

score /10

Poseidon-3 19 September 2008

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1948395/